South America
The Dallas-area Gateway megachurch is reducing the number of services at its campuses each weekend. According to a Gateway spokesperson, it will be cutting Saturday services at all of its campuses, except its flagship Southlake campus.
In the heart of Nairobi’s Mukuru slum, where corrugated iron shacks gleam under the equatorial sun, Sister Mary Killeen has woven a legacy of hope. Known as the “Mother Teresa of Nairobi,” this Dublin-born Sister of Mercy has spent nearly five decades transforming lives in one of Kenya’s most impoverished areas.
(OPINION) As someone who works with Catholic religious communities, I hear things. Up until recently, what I’ve heard has been a hopeful message that includes how much God loves each and every one of us. In recent months, though, even what I hear from the various vowed religious women with whom I interact has become somewhat ominous.
(ANALYSIS) Although he remains little known beyond the country of his birth, Rinus Israël, who died July 1 in the Netherlands at age 83, was one of history’s great Jewish soccer players. In 1970, as captain of Feyenoord, Israël was the first Dutchman — and the first Jew — to lift the European Cup (the equivalent of today’s Champions League trophy).
(ANALYSIS) Evangelicals struck a middle path. They did not make the mistake of turning inward completely, nor did they capitulate to the larger culture either. Instead, they still managed to interact with the world just enough while maintaining their cultural distinctiveness on things like sexuality, abortion, divorce, etc.
The grief. The guilt. The giant fog. Matt Collins can’t help but experience the catastrophic Texas flooding — especially the deaths of children in a sudden natural disaster — through a deeply personal lens.
Baylor University’s president announced in a letter Wednesday (July 9) that the school has rescinded a grant toward the study of “disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women” in churches. The move came after Baylor’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work announced on June 30 that it had received a grant of nearly $644,000 toward its Center for Church and Community Impact, also called C3I.
What do Texans want to find if they have the financial ability and the time to get away from that searing reality? To be blunt, they are looking for water, breezes, dry air and, yes, altitude. This brings us to the tragic headlines at the heart of this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.
A recent concert for peace in Gaza brought together Jews and Palestinians at a Catholic church in Santiago. Some 500 people attended the concert for cello, flute and classical guitar, with two female voices, organized by the Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Fernando Chomalí. The archbishop, who organized the event, is a descendant of Palestinian immigrants.
(ANALYSIS) Moyers died on June 26 at the age of 91, after a long and complex career in which he served as a speech writer and press secretary for President Lyndon B. Johnson, followed by decades of work with CBS, NBC and PBS. However, before that, the Rev. Bill Moyers was a Southern Baptist pastor in Texas towns like Brandon and Weir. He was proud of those roots and his convictions as a progressive Baptist.
(ANALYSIS) Are Superman and Jesus headed for an American revival? For better or worse, people’s love of Superman and devotion to God have always been tightly fused. Whether this will lead to a long-term revival for both or just a short-term connection remains to be seen. For now, a lot more people are looking up to the heavens than were before.
(ANALYSIS) July 11, 2025, marks the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II. In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army overran Srebrenica, brutally murdered thousands of men and teenagers, and expelled between 20,000 and 30,000 people (women, children and older persons) from the town.
Bill Moyers was arguably among the best reporters on the religion beat. Even if it wasn’t always the main focus of his work or what comes to mind for those familiar with his legacy, still, he was a lifelong spiritual seeker.
The IRS said that religious leaders could endorse political candidates in churches and other religious centers without losing their tax-exempt status — carving out an exemption from a decades-old tax code provision prohibiting nonprofits and churches from direct political engagement.
One provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law by President Donald Trump is an increase in the estate and lifetime gift tax exemption to $15 million, indexed for inflation moving forward.
(ANALYSIS) This is a mountainous and, until recently, remote area that is culturally and historically distinct from the rest of India. It is also the most thoroughly Baptist region in the world. For example, the church in Mon, a town of approximately 17,000 people, is the largest Baptist church in Asia. It dwarfs surrounding buildings and can seat 10,000 worshippers.
(ESSAY) When I began exploring the history of Christianity and the art it inspired, I had no idea it would lead me to one of the closest friendships of my life. That friend was Alexei Mihailovich Lidov, a world-renowned scholar of Byzantine art and architecture. The path to that friendship began in 1999, when our family traveled to Turkey for the first time.
Aleksei Mihailovich Lidov was one of the world’s most distinguished art historians. A scholar of deep intellect and quiet defiance, Lidov came of age in the late Soviet era, navigating a world split between official ideology and private truth. He died on May 29 at the age of 66. In this 2017 interview, Lidov looks back at his life, his family and what made him into an art historian.
The Trinity Broadcasting Network was sued by a media company started by TV personality Phil McGraw, whose eponymous talk show “Dr. Phil” captivated 10 million U.S. viewers weekly during 21 seasons on TV. The lawsuit claims TBN saddled McGraw’s enterprises with more than $100 million in financial obligations while not delivering on production and distribution services.
The bodies of seven evangelical Christians and a relative were found July 1 in a shallow grave in the Guaviare province in south-central Colombia. The six men and two women had been reported missing since April.
A former California assistant pastor has been sentenced to two years in state prison for stealing funds from a church while its founding pastor lay dying, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office announced.
(EXCERPT) Could the flourishing history of journalism provide clues for enabling it to flourish in future? Why is society’s watchdog, the press, with its long and often honorable pedigree, going feral? Failing to bark at misrepresentation and fraud, while snarling at truth? Why does journalism have the privileged position it does?
(OPINION) There’s been much academic and journalistic attention paid in recent years to the documentable benefits of treating a host of mental disorders with psychedelics. “This Is Your Priest on Drugs” looks at a published study in which researchers administered psilocybin to clergy from various religious traditions.
(ANALYSIS) Throughout his career, you see the outlines of a man burdened by the myth he helped build. A man who stared down America’s worst tendencies and tried to warn us, only to watch them metastasize. And in that exhaustion, there’s something quietly Christlike — not in purity, but in genuine suffering.
Christians in this central Texas community are working to help after catastrophic flooding claimed at least 89 lives and left an unknown number of others still missing over the holiday weekend. A tractor-trailer rig from the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort in Nashville, Tennessee — nearly 1,000 miles away — arrived at the Riverside Church of Christ in Kerrville on Sunday afternoon.
(ANALYSIS) With the increasing secularization of America, there’s far more freedom for Hollywood writers to tell stories about the afterlife that are in conflict with Christian narratives. There’s less cultural pressure to conform to Christian norms, so filmmakers are now freer explore alternative or ambiguous views of the afterlife.
Camp Mystic says it is “grieving the loss” of 27 campers and counselors as the search continued Monday for victims of catastrophic Texas flooding over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
“In a time when so many teenagers and young adults are drifting from faith, grandparents are needed now more than ever,” says Tim Curtis , whose Legacy Coalition help foster multigenerational relationships.
(OPINION) When was the last time you laughed in order to cope with some personal or social situation? 10 minutes ago? Today? Yesterday? Laughter can be a most effective coping medicine. In that way, laughter is an important spirituality tool. In many cultures, it always has been.
(ANALYSIS) A 1954 law barring churches and pastors from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office will no longer be enforced, the Internal Revenue Service said.